**Author details**

70 New Approaches to the Study of Marine Mammals

**Tail DNA % Dose C Dose B Dose A** 

*pH 8* 30.91 19.68 24.8 *pH 12.1* 30.98 24.88 17.25 *pH 13* 35.09 27.54 25.71

**Table 12.** DNA migration evaluated in fibroblast cells of striped dolphin at three different pH

**Figure 10.** Effects of different doses of the mixture benzo(a)pyrene and beta-naphthoflavone at three doses (C = (0.5μM BaP + 10μM BnF), B = (2.5μM BaP + 50μM BnF) and A = (12.5μM BaP + 250μM BnF))

The induction of DNA fragmentation was higher at the lowest dose (Dose C), while decreased at higher doses (Dose B and A), a result in contrast to other studies on cell mammal cultures [45, 46]. These investigations have demonstrated that an increase in the percentage of DNA in the tail region of the comets occurred in a concentration-dependent manner after exposure to different classes of genotoxic compounds, such as PAHs, methyl methanesulfonate (MMS) and H2O2. Our earlier Comet assay data on dolphin fibroblast cells exposed to benzo(a)pyrene are in agreement with the bibliography data. Thus, the decrease observed in our present data could be probably due to the action of the betanaphthoflavone. This hypothesis is consistent with Gravato *et al.* [47] who demonstrated a decrease of DNA damage after exposure of specimens of *Anguilla anguilla* to betanaphthoflavone. However, further studies are needed to confirm the genotoxic potential of mixture of PAHs for cetacean fibroblasts and investigate the potential genotoxicity of other

The aim of the present study was to propose cetacean fibroblast cell cultures as an "in vitro" method, called "Test Tube Cetaceans", to investigate effects of environmental contaminants

exposure on the DNA integrity of striped dolphin fibroblast cells after 4 h exposure.

**Electrophoresis condition** 

classes of contaminants.

**9. Conclusion** 

conditions.

Letizia Marsili\* , Silvia Maltese, Daniele Coppola, Ilaria Caliani, Laura Carletti, Matteo Giannetti, Tommaso Campani, Matteo Baini, Cristina Panti, Silvia Casini and M. Cristina Fossi *Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Siena, Siena, Italy* 

<sup>\*</sup> Corresponding Author
